Talk of Lovers in a Great Hall of Reflection Rereading Iris Murdoch’s The Fire and the Sun and The Bell

The main aim of this paper will not be to discuss these and other descriptions of love in Murdoch’s writing, but rather to look for the experience that prompted them. It thus makes a Murdochian move, a ‘return, a retracing of our steps to see how a certain position was reached.’ (SoG 1/299) It looks for an experience that runs the risk of being ‘forgotten or “theorized away”’ (SoG 2/299; cp. MGM 307, 341) This is the experience of love as a chaotic, funny, unsystematic, confused, and joyful conversation. It is this experience that makes clear that for Murdoch love of this world and of creation is crucial. Even when experiences of love often defy meaning or are difficult to recognise for what they are.. , she would not want to reason such difficulty and ambiguity away.